Playing Floaty Long Pips ball

Rick August Asked 1 week ago

Playing someone with long pips has always been a challenge for me.  I've seen the various videos on this topic and I understand the basic approach of alternating between pushing the chopped ball that my opponent gives me from my topspin stroke and hitting topspin on the bumped ball that my opponent gives me from my backspin shot.  Often times the shots from my opponent can be low.  I generally don't have much trouble pushing back the chopped ball which has some backspin on it but often times I hit the ball long when I topspin the bumped ball which comes to me as more of a floaty no spin ball especially if the shot is low.  I recently found that I'm much more consistent on these floaty no spin balls if I brush them more with topspin.  I'm not lifting them like hitting a topspin off of a backspin ball but I just need a good brush to get more topspin.  It seems like the extra topspin helps bring my shots back down onto the table.  Does this make sense to you?

Alois Rosario Answered 2 days ago

Hi Rick,

This makes perfect sense.  This is something I see a lot of players having problems with.  The action tells the mind that you should be lifting the ball but the long pimples have that different effect that you have to adjust to.

These floaty balls are tricky because they don't have much speed or spin on them.  To counteract it you really have to brush over the top of the ball, almost the same action as against a blocked ball but also allowing for having to generate the speed yourself.

I tell players to even try to hit that ball into the net with topspin.  That gives them the feeling of swinging forward and not being afraid of going lower with the shot.

Give it a try and let us know how you get on.